News

What’s new in the world of IT?

Keep Your Apple Devices Cool in the Summer Heat

Keep Your Apple Devices Cool in the Summer Heat

June 2023 was the hottest month on record for the planet, at least until July 2023. Among the many ill effects of such heat are what it does to iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and other digital devices. Excessive heat shortens the overall lifespan of lithium-ion batteries and increases the likelihood of both transient errors […]

read more
Adjust AirPods Options in the Settings App

Adjust AirPods Options in the Settings App

If you sometimes have trouble configuring your AirPods, here’s the trick. The AirPods settings screen is available only when the AirPods are connected to your iPhone, so you must open their case or put them in your ears. Once you do that, a new item with the name of the AirPods appears at the top […]

read more
Choosing the Best Mac for a College-Bound Student in 2023

Choosing the Best Mac for a College-Bound Student in 2023

Do you have a child starting college soon? It’s likely that your kid has been relying heavily on a computer throughout high school, but if it was a school-provided laptop or shared family computer, now’s the time to get them something of their own. Even if they had their own laptop throughout high school, if […]

read more
Need to Mask Nearby Noise? Try Ventura’s Background Sounds

Need to Mask Nearby Noise? Try Ventura’s Background Sounds

Do you have trouble concentrating at work because of a loud office environment? Or do you work at home and want to block out the sounds of kids or appliances? In macOS 13 Ventura, Apple added background sounds you can play to mask what’s going on around you. Go to System Settings > Accessibility > […]

read more
The Many New Lock Screen Customizations in iOS 16

The Many New Lock Screen Customizations in iOS 16

iOS 16 has been out for a bit now, and it’s likely safe to upgrade as long as you don’t rely on obsolete apps that might not be compatible. When you take the plunge, the first new feature to check out is the capability to create, customize, and switch among multiple Lock Screens, each with […]

read more
Sidestep MacBook Optimized Battery Charging When Necessary

Sidestep MacBook Optimized Battery Charging When Necessary

Have you ever run into a situation where the battery icon in your menu bar is stuck at 80% even though your Mac has been plugged in for hours? Luckily, there are several easy workarounds, but first, let us explain what’s going on. In the past few years, Apple has added optimized battery charging features […]

read more
What Is Google Web & App Activity, and Should You Leave It Enabled?

What Is Google Web & App Activity, and Should You Leave It Enabled?

Earlier this year, some of our clients received an email from Google reminding them that they have Web & App Activity turned on. Those with a healthy dose of caution were concerned that it might be a phishing attack, but no, it’s legitimate. Their next questions were often, “Wait, what is Web & App Activity, […]

read more
Make Sure to Back Up iPhone Photos on Your Mac

Make Sure to Back Up iPhone Photos on Your Mac

If your iPhone were to be stolen or suffer an unfortunate accident, would you lose all your precious photos? Those using iCloud Photos are probably shaking their heads smugly, thinking that all those baby and vacation photos are backed up securely in iCloud. iCloud Photos does indeed store a copy of all your photos, but […]

read more
The Amazingly Convenient Way to Scan Documents Using Your iPhone or iPad

The Amazingly Convenient Way to Scan Documents Using Your iPhone or iPad

On occasion, we all need to scan a document—an invoice, a recipe, instructions from a book—but far more people have an iPhone or iPad than a hardware scanner. Luckily, Apple has built a scanning capability into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS for some years now. The next time you’re faced with a piece of paper that […]

read more
Upgrade Past macOS 10.15 Catalina to Keep Getting Microsoft Office Updates

Upgrade Past macOS 10.15 Catalina to Keep Getting Microsoft Office Updates

We aren’t quite ready to recommend that everyone upgrade to macOS 13 Ventura, but if you use Microsoft Office with macOS 10.15 Catalina, you should start planning for an upgrade. Microsoft has announced that current versions of its productivity suite—Office for Mac 2019, Office for Mac 2021, and Microsoft 365—will receive updates only if your […]

read more
Apple Is Driving the iPhone to eSIM: Here’s What You Need to Know

Apple Is Driving the iPhone to eSIM: Here’s What You Need to Know

Perhaps the most surprising change in the iPhone 14 line, at least in the United States, was the shift from using removable SIM cards to eSIM. SIM cards—SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module—have been a fixture in the mobile phone world for many years because they provide the unique identification necessary to connect a subscriber […]

read more
What Your Organization Needs to Know About Email Blocklists

What Your Organization Needs to Know About Email Blocklists

Spam remains one of the scourges of the Internet, although spam filters do a pretty good job of keeping most of it out of email inboxes. However, those spam filters can cause deliverability problems for organizations that send email for marketing or customer outreach. One way that happens is if the IP address—the unique numeric […]

read more
Apple Releases New iPad, iPad Pro, and Apple TV

Apple Releases New iPad, iPad Pro, and Apple TV

In a series of press releases—no big video event this time—Apple has announced upgrades to the iPad, iPad Pro, and Apple TV. The new models are largely evolutionary, with changes that are welcome but unlikely to change your iPad or Apple TV experience. All are available to order now, with the new iPads arriving on […]

read more
Battery Percentage Indicator Returns in iOS 16

Battery Percentage Indicator Returns in iOS 16

Back in 2017, when Apple added the notch to the iPhone X for Face ID, the resulting loss of usable screen real estate caused the company to remove the battery percentage indicator from the status area. Since then, you’ve only been able to estimate how much battery life you had left from the icon; you […]

read more
Security Questions Your Organization Should Be Asking Itself

Security Questions Your Organization Should Be Asking Itself

We’re increasingly hearing from organizations that need to establish that they have sufficient security policies in place, either to meet the requirements of a larger client or to qualify for cyber insurance that insures against breaches and similar losses. Details vary, and we’re happy to work with you on the specifics, but here are some […]

read more
Wi-Fi Calling and Wi-Fi Assist: What Are They and How Are They Different?

Wi-Fi Calling and Wi-Fi Assist: What Are They and How Are They Different?

Two similar-sounding iOS features generate quite a bit of confusion. Wi-Fi Calling and Wi-Fi Assist both aim to improve your connectivity by using the best network available, but they achieve that goal in diametrically opposed ways. Wi-Fi Calling leverages your Wi-Fi connectivity to replace weak or nonexistent cellular coverage, whereas Wi-Fi Assist uses your cellular […]

read more
Picking the Best Mac for a College-Bound Student

Picking the Best Mac for a College-Bound Student

Do you have a child heading off to college soon? As you’re undoubtedly aware from high school, a computer is essential for a college student. If you haven’t been paying close attention to Apple’s Mac lineup, you might wonder which model makes the most sense. First,...

read more
Ransomware Is on the Rise: Learn How to Protect Your Macs

Ransomware Is on the Rise: Learn How to Protect Your Macs

The scourge of ransomware isn’t yet common on the Mac, but it makes sense to prepare for the possibility—before your organization is hit with a ransom demand.In cybercriminal circles, ransomware is all the rage. Once it has infected a computer, it encrypts all the...

read more
Two Important Tips for External Storage Devices

Two Important Tips for External Storage Devices

It’s tempting to think that most external storage devices—whether simple hard drives or more complicated network-attached storage (NAS) units—are relatively similar because they all do roughly the same thing. However, a recent problem with older Western Digital My...

read more
Two Tricks for Fixing a Mac That’s Restarting Unexpectedly

Two Tricks for Fixing a Mac That’s Restarting Unexpectedly

Although extremely uncommon, it’s not unheard of for a Mac, particularly an older model, to restart unexpectedly. If it happens once, chalk it up to cosmic rays and move on. But if it happens multiple times, try these two things right off. First, use compressed air to...

read more
AirTag Basics and How to Protect Yourself from Stalking

AirTag Basics and How to Protect Yourself from Stalking

Apple’s new AirTag tracking device is an amazing bit of technology—it’s an elegant disc about the size of a stack of four quarters that communicates its location with other Apple devices using Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband. Pair an AirTag with your iPhone and put it in...

read more
What Is the Cloud?

What Is the Cloud?

People talk about “the cloud” all the time these days, but what do they really mean? There’s no agreed-on definition, which can render some conversations nearly inscrutable. We can’t pretend to have the final answer—if there will ever be such a thing—but here’s how we...

read more
Are You Incurring Technical Debt? Avoid It by Staying Current

Are You Incurring Technical Debt? Avoid It by Staying Current

Have you heard the term technical debt? It’s what you incur whenever you delay upgrading software and hardware for too long. It’s like forgetting to brush your teeth regularly and putting off dental checkups. There may be no immediate downside, but the ongoing...

read more
Keep iPhone 12 and MagSafe Accessories Away from Pacemakers

Keep iPhone 12 and MagSafe Accessories Away from Pacemakers

Remember when we had to keep magnets away from floppy disks to avoid scrambling them? Modern storage is no longer vulnerable, but magnets and electromagnetic fields from consumer electronics can interfere with medical devices, like implanted pacemakers and...

read more
Getting Started with 1Password

Getting Started with 1Password

We’ve long recommended that everyone use a password manager like 1Password instead of attempting to memorize or write down passwords. Although there are other password managers, 1Password is the leading solution for Apple users, thanks to a focus on macOS and iOS from...

read more
What’s MDM, and Why Is It Useful for Organizations?

What’s MDM, and Why Is It Useful for Organizations?

For those who work in organizations, regardless of size, you know how much effort is involved with coordinating a group’s technology. It can take quite some time to set up a new Mac, iPad, or iPhone with all the right apps, settings, and logins. And that’s just to get...

read more
Beware iCloud Phishing Phone Calls!

Beware iCloud Phishing Phone Calls!

We’ve been hearing reports of an uptick in the scam phone calls that claim to be from Apple. If you answer, an automated message tells you that your iCloud account has been breached and asks you to call a provided 1-866 number. Do not do this! Apple will never call...

read more
Tips for Setting Up a Comfortable and Effective Home Work Space

Tips for Setting Up a Comfortable and Effective Home Work Space

Vast numbers of people who previously reported for work at an office every day are now working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s sensible, and if you’re included in that group, there was probably even a little thrill of “I get to work from home!” at...

read more